Shadows
by Clarra-Night
Summary: Involving incompetent watchmen, literal and metaphorical shadows, and Loki on a midnight walk.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: This is when Loki and Thor are adults, before the fall from the Bifrost... **_

_**It's my first multi-chapter story with an actual plot, and I'm not good at those, so don't expect too much, please! **_

_**I hope you enjoy and review! :D**_

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_The moonlight cut through the darkness like a delicate knife, illuminating the golden palace. Everything was still and quiet, like the night was waiting for something to happen. Then, of course, something did._

Loki wasn't sleeping. Not because he couldn't, but because he didn't want to. The nightmares were hunting tonight, and he would do his best not to let them catch him.

The god was perched on top of one of the bookshelves in his room, legs crossed, his clever green eyes fixed on the candle lit with a heatless flame floating in the far space in front of him.

Loki studied the contrast between the cool dusk of the shadows and the fiery brightness of the light, watching the way the light would flicker across the walls, chasing the shadows back briefly. He frowned slightly, eyebrows faintly pulling together. The shadows shouldn't have to hide whenever the light came by. Though they wouldn't be shadows in the first place if the light weren't there.

Loki held out a pale hand, illuminated with the fire's glow, and made a quick twirling motion with his finger. Suddenly the shadows swirled around the candle and blanketed the flame. The room was plunged into complete blackness for a moment, before the darkness flew back to its normal patterns and the candlelight filled the room again.

Which was now empty.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Author's Note: _****_Special thanks to I'vebeenLOKI'Dyetagain for the advice on the summary, and Meepmeep123 for my first review for this!_**

**_But another thing: I've got exams coming up very soon, so I won't be allowing myself on Fanfiction very often for the next, say, two weeks, and won't be able to review as soon as I usually do, reply to any PMs as much or post stories/chapters as often (though this story has all chapters fully written out and will be updated, but just not very regularly) :(_**

**_But thank you_****_ so much to everyone who has reviewed, favourited or followed this story! ^-^_**

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A second later, Loki casually stepped out of the gloom cast by the golden light of the torches that lit the hallway outside his room, throwing up an illusion of a wall, matching the rest of the palace, at the mouth of the corridor without missing a beat. It made it look as if that opening of the passageway was just more wall to anyone who passed by.

Loki tilted his head, listening as some guards (four, from the sounds of their footsteps) strode past, not even noticing that a passage that had always been there now wasn't. He laughed silently; the palace's own guards not even knowing the palace? He would have fun with this piece of knowledge in future. Or even just later tonight.

When he was sure that no one was around (checking by making the illusion transparent from his side like a one-way mirror), Loki waved his hand again and the false wall disappeared.

He took the left turn, careful to make as little sound as possible, and began to make his way to the Asgardian citadel's east bedchambers.

He didn't meet any guards for the next few turns, but when he had just reached the dining halls doorway, the unmistakable hushed marching of their boots on the smooth floor echoed from the other dining hall entry to Loki's right. It was one of the sounds that he usually avoided with a mischief-maker's stealth. But not tonight. He smiled.

Loki silently waited until the guards (two, this time, it sounded like) had just entered the room before conspicuously creeping in, noisily dashing from pillar to pillar and ducking low in the gloom. The guards, unsurprisingly, almost instantly noticed the scurrying slight figure and, even more unsurprisingly, charged at it immediately.

The figure whipped its head around at the sound of chasing feet, before giving them a terrifying smile and snapping its fingers, literally disappearing into the darkness of the white stone column it had reached.

The first guard, who had apparently been drinking a goblet of mead during his watch, tried skidding to a stop, before crashing into the hard stone, the sweet-smelling contents of his goblet spilling down the front and insides of his armour. The second, who had been right behind him, _did_ manage to stop, before simply overbalancing and stumbling over his partner's leg. _His _goblet of mead spilt its contents down his own legs and all over the first guard, who had staggered to the floor.

He turned to see the object of their pursuit quietly watching them from the moonlit side of the pillar next to them. Loki looked at him.

"Well… that was needlessly noisy." He spoke to the guard still standing. "One of the first rules of attacking is to firstly make sure that you _should_ attack." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "And not drink on the job. That's always good."

"Why are you still up?" demanded the guard. Loki looked at the heap on the floor next to him. "Well, apparently you didn't do a very good job of taking me down."

The older man frowned dangerously. The guards were normally more disciplined and didn't talk to Loki or Thor, but that was when Loki hadn't indirectly dumped their drinks on them in the middle of the night. "No, I'm asking why you're awake at this hour!"

"I was just going for a walk."

"You're up to something bad."

"It might be something that benefits you."

"I doubt it."

"At least I'm not going to be drinking while I do it."

"Why are you here?!"

"Who ever said that I am?"

The guard blinked, then reached for the young god in front of him, but the illusion vanished.

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**_Author's Notes: Thanks for reading ^-^_**


	3. Chapter 3

**_Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favourited or followed this story! :D _**

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Loki watched this little skirmish while leaning calmly against one of the white columns at the other end of the room, veiled in the gloom. He silently slipped through the doorway next to him, closer to the east sleeping quarters.

He shook his head in mock forlornness. "I really was just going for a walk."

The golden light from the torches danced in fiery flickers throughout the corridor, their shadowy partners dancing with them. Loki's own slender shadow was lengthened slightly against the wall next to him. He turned to it with a dark smile.

"Would you like to walk along with me?"

The shape of his shadow shifted until it was the exact proportions as him, and then it nodded silently, but very eagerly. Shadows got lonely too, apparently, even though they were always right there.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Loki grinned as his silhouette self detached its feet from the bottom of Loki's black boots and ghosted beside him against the wall.

He supposed it could be considered strange to conjure his own shadow to life for a companion on a trip around the palace, but it wasn't as if Loki had anyone else to walk with, anyway. Except for Thor.

Loki and his shadow stealthily made their way together through a few more passageways and rooms to the castle's east bedchambers before his companion suddenly held up its hand in a halt. Loki raised an eyebrow. The shadow soundlessly motioned for him to wait, and then its shape grew and twisted into the silhouettes of three more guards leaning against a fireplace and talking, all with goblets in their hands.

Loki rolled his eyes, sighing. The Allfather really needed to do something about the guards drinking during their watches.

He mouthed a silent "thank you" to his shadow; it had changed back to its usual willowy form, then had gestured that the scene it had illustrated was just around the corner.

An impish smile darted across Loki's lips.

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_**Author's Notes: Hope you enjoyed the chapter and will let me know what you think of it! **_


	4. Chapter 4

**_Author's Notes: This chapter is kind of short, but more stuff will be coming up soon! _**

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"Did you see that?"

The other guards hurriedly turned around, seeing nothing unusual. "No. See what?" They drew their swords from their sheaths.

"I think something just ran past."

The three guards hastily readied their weapons and set down their goblets on the mantelpiece, rushing after whatever it was.

Loki emerged out of the darkness of the other side of the smoldering fireplace, dipping his head down to examine the amber-gold liquid in the goblets. He didn't have much experience with the beverages that found their way into pretty much all objects that could hold liquid at every feast, but this one smelt particularly strong.

Loki murmured a few lilting words over the drinks, crinkling his nose at the new smell, before vanishing back into the darkness with a flash in his eyes to find his shadow and its chasers.

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_**Author's Notes: Sorry for the length of this chapter, but thank you if you're reading! :D**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Notes: Again, sorry for the meagre length of the chapter, but I hope you still enjoy :D**_

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Loki reappeared in the gloom of an empty room the next passage ahead of where his shadow had distracted the guards.

A slender silhouette was standing patiently against the stone of the opposite wall, night-black against the golden firelight.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting." Loki gave a small grin as it waved away the apology with a willowy dark hand. No one was usually so patient with him, although it was technically himself.

His smile widened and turned wicked when he heard the distant metallic clatter of the guards pursuing something they hadn't even tried to identify. It sounded as if another sentinel had joined them and was demanding what was happening, the group of them heading in the wrong direction.

Loki also wondered if anyone would wake up, despite that he had so far made sure guards ran through the hallways away from the citadel's other sleeping quarters. The eastern bedchambers actually only had _one _bedroom.

Turning to his shadowy self, he asked politely, "Shall we go wake my brother now?"

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_Later at dawn…_

Spluttering could be heard by one of the citadel's fireplaces.

"HOW THE HEL DID MY DRINK TURN TO MUD?!"

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_**Author's Notes: Please review and let me know what you think? I hope you liked it! :)**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: More thanks to anyone who has reviewed, favourited, followed or is reading this!**_

_**Exams are finished, so I'll be posting chapters a little more regularly, hopefully :) **_

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Thor cracked open his eyes to see his younger brother standing by his golden-gilded mirror, green eyes bright with mischief in the darkness and the source of his sudden wakefulness being twirled between Loki's nimble fingers.

"Only you can hear this flute." Loki explained casually as Thor opened his mouth to speak. Though he doubted the first thing out of Thor's mouth would be to ask if anyone else had been woken by Loki's flute rendition of the popular Asgardian fanfare.

"Will you please accompany me? It may or may not be worth your while, so just do it for fun. I'll explain on the way."

Thor glowered at him. "Why have you woken me, Brother?" he demanded. Then he brightened slightly, sitting forward attentively. "Is there an assault on Asgard?"

"Sadly for you, no," Thor slumped back down. Loki's lip twitched into a tiny smirk.

"I did promise myself I would ask you politely before stealing something to force you on a walk with me."

Loki's hands flourished over the flute and it twisted and turned into Thor's winged helmet.

Then he darted out the double doors.

"_Loki!_"

* * *

It might have been considered a peculiar panorama.

The brawny blond thunder-god was storming through the palace in the middle of the night after his younger brother, whose shadow seemed to be following its own rhythm of running beside him, as the Trickster held a polished winged helmet in his hands.

Also, the Maker of Mischief was actually running _towards _the sound of the guards, who were still in pursuit from earlier in the night.

Loki managed to reach the intersection of the passageways where the two hunting parties would meet before Thor had caught him. His brother was charging from Loki's left, while the group of guards (now a total of six, two of them with mead through their armour from earlier that night) were rushing in from his right.

When the two groups were about to reach the shadowy shape standing against the stone of the crossroads' wall, it suddenly melted into the darkness.

Just as Thor and the guards collided.

"_LOKI!_"

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

Loki stepped out of the quiet dimness and waved his hand over the heavy gold lock. It clunked shut, and he nodded with a small, crafty smile. The palace's wine cellars would be inaccessible to the guards for the rest of the night.

At least until they got the keys back.

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_**Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed! ^_^**_


	7. Chapter 7

**_Author's Note: By the way, that last part is not the continuation to the next day; it's more like just a little flash forward of what happened to the keys :P _**

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When Loki reappeared where Thor and the guards had crashed into each other, he found the burly god towering over the others, the entire group disheveled.

"- you've been hounding something all through the night and still do not have it in your grasps?" Thor seemed somewhere between admonishment and arrogance, eyebrows raised and stance proud.

Loki stood at the corner of the passage, impassively watching what he knew would unfold: the God of Thunder reprimanding the watchmen as they listened, humbled, and tried to get some words of defense in.

"- How can you expect to be protectors of Asgard if you can't even catch _Loki?_" Thor was demanding. Loki's eyes lowered slightly. The guards protested in unintelligible mumbles before bowing their heads and leaving to return to their posts.

"I thought they might listen to you." Loki nodded to his brother as Thor turned to round on him.

"You wake me from my slumber to remedy the sentinels' uselessness?"

"Well, as I said, I thought they might listen to you; they don't take advice from 'scrawny trouble-makers', and something really needed to be done." Loki shrugged with a laughing glint in the green of his eyes.

"Return my helmet to me, Brother!"

Loki chuckled, Thor not noticing the second more impish gleam in his eyes as it hid behind wide-eyed innocence. "Of course."

He held out the helmet, his shadow softening the bright firelight to avoid the metal flashing.

* * *

Thor didn't know why the servants looked at him strangely when he called for another goblet of wine the next day, and thought the reason for all the guards' complete abstinence from their usual drinks during their watches was due to his criticism that night.

He hadn't noticed the wine cellar keys, that Loki had silenced and stuck on with magic, swinging from the left wing of his helmet.

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**_Author's Note: Please review! But thank you for reading, regardless *-*_**


	8. Chapter 8

**_Author's Note: Last chapter! (I'm sorry that most of them had been quite short!) _**

**_But thanks so much for the support! *-* (Eheh, that rhymed) _**

**_Please let me know what you think/thought of any of it? _**

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_The next morning…_

A light breeze stirred the sunlit morning, gently tousling Loki's inky dark hair around his face.

He was peaceably perched on a white stone pillar nearby the training fields, sharp eyes studying the soft shadows of a slight sapling swaying in the clement wind.

When the telltale marching of his brother's stride broke through the quiet of the morning, Loki turned away from the shadows. "And what are you doing today?"

Thor looked up at Loki on his lofty perch, his blond eyebrows furrowed against the bright sun. Loki grinned at the clunky keys glinting gold from Thor's helmet.

"I'm devoting my hours to the training fields, Brother! Accompany me and watch my friends and I practice for battle! You weren't planning on practicing your tricks today, were you?"

His younger brother inwardly sighed… but a small smile unlike his usual mischievous smirks still lit his face.

"Not at all." Loki hopped down lightly from the column, mentally rescheduling his plans to review invisibility magic, and ended up by Thor's side.

As they made their way to the wide expanse of the training fields, Loki's eyes trailed over his own shadow, now the soft dusk of shadows on a gentle morning than the pitch-blackness of the previous night, as it walked alongside him. He had already returned it to a shadow's expected behaviour, but watched it with a strangely regretful expression.

"You're not afraid of your own shadow, are you?" Thor chortled as he watched Loki studying it closely.

"For some people, that may not be such a foolish fear." He shrugged a small shrug, then smiled a small smile.

It was only his shadow. It was a surprisingly good companion for a midnight walk around the palace and it was always right there should he ever need it, but while Thor was here, Loki would walk with him instead.

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**_Author's Note: This story is now complete! I hope you enjoyed it, and many thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, favourited or followed! :D_**


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